Saturday • MOTR Pub

Early last year, former Karate
vocalist/guitarist Geoff Farina joined forces with Brokeback/Tight
Phantomz bassist Pete Croke and ex-Chisel drummer John Dugan to create
Exit Verse, a power trio for the 21st century.

Louisville Electro Pop artists The Pass, who’ve become popular with local audiences thanks to repeated visits to the Cincinnati area (providing highlight sets for more than a couple MidPoint Music Festivals), performs a free show tonight at Over-the-Rhine’s MOTR Pub. Local trio JetLab (which just released its self-titled debut last week) opens things up around 10 p.m.The Pass’ show tonight is the start of a tour in support of the band’s new EP release, High Road, which follows the release of four 7-inch singles at the start of 2014 and comes out this Tuesday. “Take You Out,” a track from the new release, was debuted on the website We All Want Someone to Shout For yesterday. The site says the track "deliver(s) a world of glossy synths, love-sick vocals, and a feel-good atmosphere that you can’t shake anywhere else but the dance floor. With so many electronic groups relying heavily on computers and other effects these days, it’s great to see The Pass deliver such groovy tunes as a full live band. It truly separates them from the rest of the pack."Check it:• Nashville-based Americana artist Nora Jane Struthers and her band The Party Line play Newport’s Southgate House Revival tonight. Mike Oberst of local Folk faves The Tillers opens the show at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $10.
Struthers was born in Virginia and raised in New Jersey, getting her first taste of the musician’s life as a tween fiddler and traveling to festivals and conventions with her father (a banjoist). Struthers decided to pursue a career in teaching, but after a few years she switched her focus back to music, inspired by watching Tim O’Brien perform at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. Her 2010 debut solo album showcased her stellar lyrical abilities and mastery of traditional Americana and Bluegrass sounds. She hit her stride with last year’s Carnival, bolstered by her full-time band, The Party Line. Struthers is gearing up for the release of her new album with The Party Line, Wake, which is due in February of next year. The album is said to be more eclectic and nods in a more Rock direction, inspired by her love of recent albums by Hayes Carll and Jason Isbell. NPR’s Ann Powers recently interviewed Struthers about the new album (read it here) and unveiled the new album track, “The Same Road.”
• According to B-105 FM’s website, tonight’s Toys for Tots benefit show at Toby Keith’s I Love this Bar and Grill is sold out (the bar’s website says there may be “limited tickets” available at the door tonight). The 8 p.m. concert features headliner Easton Corbin, plus up-and-comers Maddie & Tae and RaeLynn. Click here for show details and read Deirdre Kaye’s preview of Maddie & Tae’s performance for CityBeat here.
Click here for more live music options tonight in Greater Cincinnati.

Saturday • MOTR Pub

Bobby Bare Jr. cannot hide from his
family’s legacy, considering he shares the same name as his Country
Music Hall of Fame father, Bobby Bare, who recorded here in Cincinnati
at King Records in the 1960s.

Besides sporting one of the best band names in recent memory, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. also makes wildly endearing, monstrously melodic Indie/Electro Pop. Detroit’s Daniel Zott and Joshua Epstein started the project in 2009 as a home-recording venture, but a pair of EP releases the following year drew widespread attention, leading to a deal with Warner Bros. Records. The band released its debut full-length, It’s a Corporate World, in 2011 and followed it up last year with the acclaimed The Speed of Things. Paste named that album’s single, “Run,” one of the best songs of 2013 and also called them one of the Top 25 live acts around. At the start of fall, the band released a new single, “James Dean,” a great slice of chilled-out, slow-jam Pop. DEJJ plays Oakley’s 20th Century Theater tonight at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15.
• Chicago Indie Rock foursome Empires, a 2014’s MidPoint Music Festival favorite, return to Cincy tonight for a 10 p.m. show at The Drinkery in Over-the-Rhine. Great Cincinnati band Pop Goes the Evil opens.Here’s Ben Walpole’s preview from CityBeat’s official MPMF guide:
Empires enters MPMF 2014 building something close to its namesake this summer. It started with strong showings at Bonnaroo and the Hangout Music Festival, continued with a June appearance on a little program called the Late Show With David Letterman, followed by a well-received four-song EP – all building toward the band’s major-label debut, Orphan, released this week on Chop Shop/Island Records. The album was produced by John Congleton, who has worked with St. Vincent, The Black Angels and Explosions In The Sky, among others.
You’ll Dig It If You Dig: A more up-tempo The National; an artsier The Killers; a less dramatic The Horrors.
Here is the video for “How Does It Feel” from Empires’ most recent release, Orphan.
• Stellar Cincinnati singer/songwriter Kim Taylor (read CityBeat’s 2013 profile of Taylor here) headlines MOTR Pub in Over-the-Rhine tonight. Joining Taylor is Boston Indie/Americana Pop band The Grownup Noise. The band opens the free show at 10 p.m.
The Grownup Noise debuted in 2007 with its inaugural release, a widely acclaimed self-titled full-length. The band recently returned with its three-years-in-the-making third LP, The Problem with Living in the Moment, which came out late last month.
The Boston Herald has this to say about the new release:
Calling the Grownup Noise’s new work — “The Problem With Living in the Moment” — “an album” seems like a slight. Declaring the folk/rock blend a symphony is overkill, but the 11 tracks have such a orchestral sweep — swelling strings, rippling piano lines, a harmony of percussion arranged with meticulous detail. Let’s call it a suite. That seems to fit.
• “Foot-Stompin’ ” Country-tinged Rock duo Sundy Best, which originated in tiny Prestonburg, Ky., (and is now based in Lexington) plays Newport’s Southgate House Revival tonight. Showtime is 9 p.m. and tickets are $15.The band’s bio describes its sound as “music that re-imagines timeless classic rock of the ‘70s and ‘80s – think the Eagles and the smart, whiskey-voiced lyrics of Tom Petty and Bob Seger.” Along with critical acclaim from outlets like Rolling Stone and The New York Times, the band has found success on the road and satellite radio. and has even scored buzz via attention from the CMT television network. The duo is gearing up for the Dec. 2 release of its latest album, Salvation City.
Here’s Sundy Best’s video for “Lotta Love,” a track from the album Bring Up the Sun.
For more live music events in Greater Cincinnati tonight, click here.